


the world is cruel (how can I protect you boy, unless you always stay in here?)

by VolxdoSioda



Series: MerMay 2019 (Complete) [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, meet Uncle Ardyn, mentions of bad mother on Aulea's side of the family (not done by Aulea herself), mentions of filicide and infanticide, who has many teeth and is oh-so-overjoyed to meet you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 11:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18991414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Ardyn has always known Aulea Gavros was a monster, just like every female in her line before her. So when Noctis goes missing shortly after his birth, he doesn't say to Regis "I told you so." Instead he buries himself in the depths of the ocean and forgets.But now there is word the Prince is alive. That the Queen might not be following in her forebearer's madness.And so Ardyn rises from the depths, and goes to meet the imposter Prince.





	the world is cruel (how can I protect you boy, unless you always stay in here?)

_"Alright, alright, move aside now, move I said! Royal Uncle, coming through--"_

_The crowd is parted, though not without effort, and Ardyn is allowed into Regis' chambers without further argument. There, he finds Aulea asleep, and Regis cooing over a nest in the sand, where a squirming bundle of limbs is currently feeling around._

_Ardyn peers over Regis's shoulder. Dark hair like his father, his mother's nose and ears, his father's chin. Perfectly cuddly, perfectly round, a cuttlefish mer through and through._

_"So," Ardyn says, and Regis jumps like he's been electrocuted, whirling to pin Ardyn with a thundercloud stare. "This is the resident ball of joy, hm?"_

_"Six damn it Ardyn, what have I told you about sneaking up on me like that?" The King demands, one hand pressed to his main heart as he glowers at his ancient ancestor._

_Ardyn pauses in examining his nails. "What's your point?"_

_Regis rolls his eyes. "Yes, Ardyn, this is Noctis, your great-great however many times its been grand nephew. Please do not terrorize him, Aulea has only just fallen asleep."_

_Ardyn slants a glance at the Queen; sound asleep, the killer whale mer's belly no longer distended to hold the Royal Heir. "Hm. Yes. Pity were I to wake her."_

_"I mean it, Ardyn--"_

_"Am I allowed to give my blessing now, or must I wait for your **Queen** to wake?" Ardyn sneers delicately. _

_Regis's expression gives nothing away, but Ardyn knows that his dislike of the resident Queen still hurts. As well it should. Aulea Gavros has a long, twisted history that the public likes to pretend not to see. The matriarchs on her side are known for the sudden deaths of their mates, and "missing" children. For all that Aulea seems to shuck all of that, Ardyn doesn't, and never will, trust her._

_"You may give your blessing, Ardyn," his descendant says at last, tired, and clearly realizing spurning his ancestor isn't like to win any battles. "Please be delicate. He's still soft."_

_"I'm well aware, Regis. If  you'll recall, I've done this for all of you at some time or another. I know how to hold offspring." It's no lie; as the  Healer King of the Deep, he was called on frequently to bless the arrival of the babies on the first day, and so many of them would still be soft and terribly vulnerable. He learned to mind his claws, to hold them with just enough strength to carry, never to crush._

_Now he does so again, scooping up his youngest relative, and bringing him up to his chest, over where the leylines run darkest. He lets all the water flush from his body, and then sighs a word that makes all noise in the world stop for a flicker of a heartbeat._

_In that flicker, he is greater than this shell can hold. He is large, and ever-hungry, and he is the Depths itself, black and unrelenting. He reaches down, down, and lets himself bleed into the leylines, dragging with it great strength and perverseness, enough to survive any assault._

_He strokes a claw gently down the soft back of his descendant, and wills all that to pour into the babe. His lines glow crimson; and slowly, almost unnoticeable, they reach out and begin to overtake Noctis' form. They crawl, like serpents searching the rocks for prey, and come to connect at several points. Ardyn watches until all the lines connect, and then he speaks a word that makes the unnatural silence shatter._

_In the back of his head, as with every descendant, he feels a flicker of their magic against his own. A tiny spark, rough, and thoughtless. With time, it will smooth out and grow, and Noctis will begin feeding from Ardyn's own magic to strengthen himself. This was the blessing the Kings of the Deep were once offered - until they were destroyed by their own people. Only Ardyn remains as such now, and through him comes the power only Leviathan herself can wield. A connection to their God, immeasurable, and as terrifying as Her._

_He sets Noctis back down, the babe contentedly sucking on its own tentacle now, and beside him, Regis seems to breathe a sigh. "He's alright, then?"_

_"As any of you are." He tactfully doesn't bring up that several times, the magic within him had rejected a few of their line, and the babes hadn't survived. That the further out the line breaches, the more it seems to do that. That Noctis could have easily been a casualty, but wasn't._

_He doesn't bring it up, and instead bows to Regis, and takes his leave._

_Two days later, Noctis Lucis Caelum is kidnapped, and Ardyn doesn't bother telling Regis 'I told you so'. He just ignores the summons when it comes, begging him to come to the Citadel and track down who took Noctis. He knows it will lead back to Aulea, but the Queen will deny it, and Regis will deny it, and the public will deny it._

_A killer whale can't change their spots, he doesn't say._

_Eventually, the summons stop coming, and eventually, the mourning stops. But the public never stops hearing 'Noctis was kidnapped'. And Ardyn never stops sneering._

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

When the word comes that the Prince has been found, Ardyn laughs. When he hears that Cor the Immortal has gone to the land to train the Prince and live as his protector, he laughs even more. 

And then he goes to see the imposter Prince.

One would think being bright neon would allow anyone with eyes to see him, especially among the rocks, but those fools would be wrong. Ardyn knows how to move to match the tides, and so he slinks along, until he's practically right at the edge of the water. And then he waits. He knows how to be patient.

It doesn't take long.

At length, a boy strolls over the dunes, and Ardyn almost wants to sneer. Hidden away behind hood and helmet, his face barely visible. A thin body, stick-like, pale. They're so desperate to 'find' their 'missing' Prince that they would accept  _anyone,_ clearly.

"Noctis," he hears the Immortal's voice over the ridge. "Stay by the shore. I'll be right there."

"Okay!" the imposter calls back, and his voice is young, cracking around the edges. Gods, has this whelp even hit puberty?

It doesn't take much. The boy ambles closer to the edge, and Ardyn stays put. The boy sits at the edge of the sand with a sigh, and pulls back his hood. 

And Ardyn  _flinches._

It isn't possible. And yet, he knows that face. Knows those  _eyes._ No human would have such bright blue, a stable of the Lucis Caelum's connection to Leviathan herself. The hair is the same, dark and silky, and Ardyn knows if he reached forward, he could cup this boy's head in his entire hand, just like he did when he was a babe.

But still. It could be a very convincing lookalike. Such things have happened before. 

 _But what if it isn't?_ A voice that sounds eerily like Somnus says in the back of his head.  _What if it's Noctis? What if Regis told the truth, and the boy wasn't killed, but kidnapped?_

Only one way to find out.

Ardyn is one of the oldest creatures in the deep. Despite his size, despite his age, he can move when he desires. So when he shoots forward, and grabs the boy by the neck, and hauls him into the ocean, he does it with a speed not even the Immortal can keep up with. He hears Cor's shout as the man witnesses it, and then Ardyn turns and shoots down, into the blackness.

The little fish in his hand squirms, claws at his wrist and arms with dull fingernails, but the more they descend, the weaker his struggles grow. At last he knows they're deep enough, enough so that Cor the Immortal can't venture because he can't  _see._ Lionfish eyes aren't made for this depth - nobody is except Ardyn.

The human in his grasp is kept safe by his natural magics, but if Ardyn were to let go, he'd be crushed by the pressure. Now Ardyn brings him close to his chest, in a mimicry of the hold he once performed on Noctis. If this is an imposter, he'll die. If not, then Ardyn will know.

He breathes out, and sighs a word. The world stops. The leylines advance, and then  _jerk,_ and Ardyn cups the boy's face, and tilts his head down, peering into eyes that are barely awake.

A curse. A curse as old as Ardyn himself, a curse wrapped tight around magic that flares in Ardyn's grip, that desperately reaches out, begging, crying,  _help me._

This is Noctis Lucis Caelum. Bound as a human, fighting, unable to help himself. This is his nephew.

Ardyn blinks, and lets the spell drop. The leylines retract, and a second later, he weaves a bubble of air around his nephew's nose and mouth, and Noctis gasps, coughing. He doesn't struggle as Ardyn re-adjusts his grip to hold him with one hand, keeping their chests pressed together to prevent him getting hurt.

"Well now," Ardyn purrs, and Noctis looks up at him with wide, fearful eyes. "Aren't you a very small fish in a very dark pond, little love?"

"Who--what--?"

"You don't remember? Oh, you cut me to the quick, nephew!" He presses a hand to his second heart, miming being wounded. "But then again, you were fresh out of your mother's pouch when we met."

"You... you know my mother?"

"And your father." He tips an imaginary hat. "Ardyn Lucis Caelum, incredibly distant, highly immortal ancestor of Regis Lucis Caelum. I'm everyone's uncle." He grins, and watches in amusement as Noctis counts his many, many teeth. "A pleasure to see you again, my dear."

_"ARDYN!"_

Noctis' head jerks up, and he goes pale. "Cor," he breathes. He looks at Ardyn beseechingly. "Please, please let me up, Uncle. Cor's up there, and he's worried, and I--"

A thought; there's a  _pop,_ and suddenly they're eye level with Cor the Immortal, who is darting back and forth across the waves looking positive apocalyptic with rage. 

"--can't upset him," Noctis finishes weakly. Cor whirls around and reaches for him, and Ardyn grudgingly lets his squirming nephew go.

"Noctis," Cor breathes, and  _oh,_ is that  _fear_ on the Immortal's face? "Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?"

"Rude," Ardyn mutters.

"No, no I'm fine, honest. Just startled. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Cor says, wrapping one arm around Noctis. "Ardyn what the  _hell-"_

Before he can get any further, the bubble of air around Noctis' head pops, and Cor curses, shooting upwards as Noctis inhales water and starts panicking. 

Ardyn lazily follows them up, surfacing in time to watch Noctis cough out the water he just inhaled, Cor smacking his back to help. 

Cor whips around to glower at him as he watches, and murmurs something to Noctis before swimming back towards him. "What the fuck is  _wrong with you?!"_

"What? Can't an uncle come say hello to his missing nephew?"

"You know damned well that wasn't you coming to say hello, you piece of shit," Cor snarls. "That was you coming to test whether Aulea ate her own damn kid!"

"Same difference," Ardyn says with a lazy wave of his hand, leaning back on the rocks. "And now we know he is actually alive, and that murdering queen didn't eat him. Oh dear, did I say that out loud? My mistake." He puts on a false placating smile, the kind that makes Regis want to pull out his hair.

Cor is shaking in rage. It's been too long since that happened, in Ardyn's opinion. "She would never," he hisses. "Aulea loves Noctis, she has for  _years--"_

"And yet her kind still swim around and eat their children and rip their husbands open. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Cor turns his back and takes in several breaths. Noctis is no longer coughing, but watching them worriedly from the shore. He looks very much like he'd like to know what they're talking about, but also realizes the level of water they're in probably isn't a safe level for him to tread.

Smart boy.

"Noctis," Cor says at last. "Is cursed to the form of a human. He can't swim, Ardyn, and I don't appreciate you yanking him around like that, and  _terrorizing him."_

"Oh yes, I'm aware of that curse. Why do you think I pulled him down?" Ardyn cleans one set of nails with his other set. "The curse won't, and likely can't be broken by anything less than the boy himself."

"Wait-- but you--"

"The curse," Ardyn continues, "Is as old as I am. But it was done by a female, rather than myself. Aulea Gavros, murdering widow or not, would not have been able to do it. But someone in her family might have."

"What the fuck makes you think--"

"Oh I don't know. Maybe the fact that there are at least four matriarchs in her colony that are nearly as old as I am, with  nearly the same amount of magical power, who have made it abundantly clear over the many, many years they've been alive that they expect the women in their family to eat the men and produce only females?"

Dead silence. And then, from the shore--

"Are you saying my mom's family cursed me?"

Ardyn looks at Noctis. Young, terrified, pale. Looking like a sharp breeze would knock him over.

"My dearest little tuna," he purrs, and lets his teeth come out. This time, darling Noctis doesn't flinch. "That is  _precisely_ what I'm saying."


End file.
